The present invention relates to digital cinema projection systems and particularly to setting up the systems to the authored reference configuration state.
Currently, movie material is digitized from film or digitally created based on a given projector configuration. The distributed data is authored using a review projector with a given set of characteristics. The setup information for the reference monitor is often different for each movie transfer. As a result, during playback each projector must be appropriately configured to match the characteristics of the reference system or the appropriate compensation must be applied to the incoming data, based on the given performance level of the playback system. A skilled technician is required to properly setup each system prior to playback, thereby introducing the possibility for improperly configured projector systems.
FIG. 1 is a drawing of a typical prior art packet structured transport stream used in digital cinema projectors. This consists of a continuous stream of video picture data 100, 102, 104, 106, 110, 112, 114, 116, and 120, 122 with audio data 108, 118 being periodically interspersed into the stream. This data gets presented based on the setup of the projector and as a result, the possibility exists for the picture to appear differently from projector to projector, depending on the various projectors"" setup.
What is needed is a fail-safe way to assure that each projector is setup to match the performance of the reference system used by the media author in creating the film. The disclosed approach accomplishes this by embedding the projector configuration data in the transport stream along with the video content. This assures that each projector is setup properly and that any special effects, which may occur on a frame-by-frame basis, are presented according to the author""s intentions.
The present invention discloses a transport stream with embedded projector configuration data being carried along with the video for use in digital cinema projector setup. The embedded configuration data includes setup information for such parameters as gamma tables, color management system, intended luminance level, format and range of the sampled data, 3D/2D presentation information, frame rate, image size, aspect ratio, font tables, and language provision.
Embedding the setup data in the content transport stream eliminates the need for skilled on-site personnel to properly configure the projector before each performance to assure that the projector is setup according to the film author""s desires, and it greatly reduces the possibility that the projector is improperly configured for the content being delivered. It also minimizes the possibility of errors being present in the configuration data. This approach also permits on-the-fly changes to the projector""s frame rate and other parameters, which may be used for artistic effects, or to reduce temporal aliasing (judder) in the image. In addition, it enables a proprietary image characteristic look desired by some filmmakers.